Ofer Waldman was born in Jerusalem and moved to Berlin in 1999 as a member of Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. He studied at the Berlin University of the Arts and performed with leading orchestras in Germany and Israel. Following his music career, Waldman earned a joint PhD from the Free University of Berlin (German Literature) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Jewish History), and worked as a freelance author and journalist. In 2021, he won the ARD German Radio Play Award for “Adolf Eichmann: Ein Hörprozess”. His books include Singularkollektiv. Erzählungen (2023), Gleichzeit. Briefe zwischen Israel und Europa (2024, with Sasha Marianna Salzmann), and Verkämpftes Land. Beobachtungen (2025). He chaired the New Israel Fund in Germany from 2016 to 2019. Since August 2025, he has headed the Tel Aviv office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. Photo credits: Bernd Brundert.